Bowness: Ehlers Should Only Miss Seven To Ten Days
- Although the Jets placed Nikolaj Ehlers on IR yesterday, the news is pretty good when it comes to the winger. Head coach Rick Bowness (who has returned from COVID protocol) told reporters, including Scott Billeck of the Winnipeg Sun (Twitter link), that Ehlers is expected to miss somewhere between seven and ten days. An IR placement is a minimum of seven days and it appears the 26-year-old won’t miss much more time than that. He has three assists in two games so far this season.
Nikolaj Ehlers Placed On Injured Reserve
The Winnipeg Jets have moved Nikolaj Ehlers to injured reserve, retroactive to October 18. The retroactive placement suggests that he won’t be out very long, but will miss at least the team’s next two games. With the roster spot, the team recalled Dominic Toninato, who cleared waivers recently and was playing in the AHL.
Ehlers, 26, played a full allotment of minutes in each of the team’s first two games of the season, registering three points along the way. He missed Wednesday’s matchup against the Colorado Avalanche after leaving the morning skate early, and then didn’t play last night in the loss to the Vegas Golden Knights. Amazingly, despite missing two games he still is in a tie for first among Jets forwards in scoring, showing just how important he is to the offensive performance of the team.
Toninato, meanwhile, broke camp with the team but was sent down after they claimed Axel Jonsson Fjallby on waivers. The 28-year-old forward played in 77 games with the team last season and scored 14 points, the best performance of his career so far.
It is not clear yet how long Ehlers will be out but the Jets sure could use him. Key forwards like Blake Wheeler, Adam Lowry, and Mason Appleton still haven’t scored, leaving the Winnipeg depth lacking at the moment. Neal Pionk leads the team in scoring with four points in four games, not exactly ideal for a group that has been so reliant on their forward group over the years.
Rick Bowness Tests Positive For Covid-19
The Winnipeg Jets have announced that head coach Rick Bowness has tested positive for COVID-19. As a result of the test, Bowness will not be able to coach tonight’s season-opening game against the New York Rangers, and assistant coach Scott Arniel will assume head coaching duties in the interim during Bowness’ absence.
This news isn’t ideal for Bowness and the Jets, although it’s thankfully not a regular occurrence in the NHL as it used to be, nor is it the sort of development that could threaten to derail a season, as some COVID positives have been in the past. The Jets will afford Bowness the time he needs to get back to full health while Arniel takes the reins in the interim. Arniel, 60, was an assistant coach with the Washington Capitals for four seasons before joining Bowness’ staff this summer, and he has six years of head coaching experience on his resume split between the Columbus Blue Jackets and AHL’s Manitoba Moose.
Winnipeg Jets Activate Mason Appleton
As expected, the Winnipeg Jets have activated Mason Appleton in time for tonight’s season-opener. Dominic Toninato cleared waivers earlier today, and will likely be sent down once Axel Jonsson-Fjallby is activated from the non-roster list.
Appleton, 26, has had an interesting few years. After experiencing something of a breakout campaign in 2020-21, scoring 12 goals and 25 points in 56 games, he was selected by the Seattle Kraken in the expansion draft. Eight months later, the Jets were able to get him back, sending a fourth-round pick to the Kraken after he played 49 games in Seattle.
Now, he figures to start on the third line with Morgan Barron and Adam Lowry, a big group that should be effective for the Jets. With just 21 points last season, there’s plenty of room for growth this time around as long as Appleton can stay healthy.
The Jets kick things off against the New York Rangers, a team that is already 2-0 on the year.
Dominic Toninato Clears Waivers
Oct 14: Toninato has cleared waivers and can now be assigned to the minor leagues.
Oct 13: The Winnipeg Jets are sending another player to the minor leagues ahead of opening night, placing Dominic Toninato on waivers for the purpose of reassignment. Toninato appeared to have won a job on the roster for the start of the year but that has apparently changed over the last few days.
The reason might be a combination of two things. Ken Wiebe of Sportsnet tweets that Mason Appleton could be activated ahead of tomorrow night’s game, while team reporter Mitchell Clinton adds that Axel Jonsson-Fjallby will be practicing with the group today. Jonsson-Fjallby was claimed off waivers from the Washington Capitals on Monday and was designated as a non-roster player this week.
With those two joining the group, there needed to be someone sent down, and Toninato is the odd man out. The 28-year-old forward played in 77 games for the Jets last season, scoring seven goals and 14 points. That was by far the most games of his career, having reached a previous high of 46 in 20219-20 with the Florida Panthers.
The bottom-six forward doesn’t offer much scoring upside, and will likely have no issue clearing waivers. Of course, that would have been even more likely before the games started and teams began suffering injuries. If cleared, he will be stashed in the minor leagues with the Manitoba Moose but could be the Jets first call-up, depending on how the season goes.
Winnipeg Jets Name Team Captains
- After announcing that Blake Wheeler would no longer serve as the team’s captain last month, the Winnipeg Jets have settled on a leadership core for the 2022-23 season. As reported by TSN’s John Lu, Mark Scheifele, Adam Lowry, and Josh Morrissey were all named alternate captains for the Jets. Both Morrissey and Scheifele were alternate captains last season, while this year will mark the first year where Lowry will wear a letter since he was the captain of the WHL’s Swift Current Broncos in 2013.
Winnipeg Jets Sign Brad Lambert To Entry-Level Deal
The Winnipeg Jets announced this evening that they’ve signed prospect Brad Lambert to a three-year, entry-level deal. Lambert, the 30th overall selection of the 2022 draft, had a very impressive training camp before being sent to the AHL late last week. The deal will carry an AAV of $1.2MM the team says, though his cap hit will be only $950K.
Lambert’s signing doesn’t necessarily point to the young forward being recalled imminently or even any time soon, but it does allow him to play in the AHL outside of a tryout. Impressive as he was in training camp, Lambert did struggle to produce offensively during his time in the Finnish Liiga, recording just 27 points in 99 games over the previous four seasons split between three teams. His production also did not take the step forward one would hope for in his draft year either, registering just four points in 25 games for his hometown Lahti Pelicans.
This lack of production was likely a key factor in Lambert slipping all the way down to number 30 in this year’s draft. Though Seattle Kraken forward Shane Wright was the closest the 2022 draft class had to a consensus number one pick (and ultimately, that did not go as expected anyways), Lambert was at times thought to be able to go near that number one slot. After his strong camp, it appears a good deal of Lambert’s stock has been rebuilt, but now it will be up to him to prove he can produce at the professional level and now in North America.
For the specific financial picture, PuckPedia breaks down the contract as follows: a $950,000 base salary and a $95,000 signing bonus for all three seasons. The second and third seasons will include up to $375,000 in performance bonuses in each year. The contract also includes an $82,500 minors salary.
Jets Claim Axel Jonsson Fjallby Off Waivers
Winnipeg’s bottom six forward group has undergone some changes over the offseason and one more change has been made as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports (Twitter link) that they’ve claimed winger Axel Jonsson Fjallby off waivers from Washington.
It’s the second season in a row that the 24-year-old has been claimed off waivers as Buffalo scooped him up a season ago only to waive him less than a week later with a visa issue playing a role in that. Washington reclaimed Jonsson Fjallby at that time and sent him to the minors where he had a productive season with Hershey, notching 16 goals and 18 assists in 44 games. However, he also got his first taste of NHL action, picking up two goals and two assists in 23 games while logging over 11 minutes a night with the Caps.
Jonsson Fjallby is in the final season of a two-year, two-way deal that pays the league minimum at the NHL level and will need to have much more of a regular role in Winnipeg for him to play enough games to avoid being eligible for Group Six unrestricted free agency next summer. He’ll take the place of Jansen Harkins on the roster for the Jets after Harkins cleared waivers earlier today.
Lower-Body Injury For Dubois, Not Believed To Be Serious
- Jets forward Pierre-Luc Dubois exited yesterday’s game after the first period but the injury is not believed to be a serious one, notes Scott Billeck of the Winnipeg Sun. Head coach Rick Bowness indicated that the 24-year-old had a minor lower-body issue that flared up so they pulled him out as a precaution. Despite leaving early, Dubois had his first two goals of the preseason on Friday and should be ready to return for their season opener on Friday.
Canadiens Claim Johnathan Kovacevic From Jets
The Canadiens have added some depth on the back end as NorthStar Bets’ Chris Johnston reports (Twitter link) that they’ve claimed defenseman Johnathan Kovacevic off waivers from Winnipeg.
The 25-year-old made his NHL debut last season, getting into four games with the Jets where he averaged just shy of 11 minutes per game. Kovacevic spent most of the year with AHL Manitoba where he put up 11 goals and 19 assists in 62 games, both career-bests. That was enough for Winnipeg to sign him to a three-year contract this summer, one that’s worth the NHL minimum in each season, carrying a cap hit of $766.7K. The deal is two-way for the first two years and one-way for the last season.
Montreal, who has the top waiver priority for all of October after finishing last in 2021-22, has several open spots on their back end with only veterans Mike Matheson, David Savard, Joel Edmundson, and Chris Wideman assured of spots and Edmundson has yet to play this preseason due to back injuries. They’ve spent most of the preseason running through several prospects and minor leaguers with varying results. Adding Kovacevic will fill one of those openings and push a prospect or a younger veteran on the fringes to the minors (and/or waiver wire) in advance of Monday’s season-opening roster deadline.